All reviews at Edutaining Kids are
independent, impartial reviews. Children's software reviews are
designed to help parents and caregivers decide which software games
are best for their kids, and are evaluated based on a number of
factors, including educational and entertainment value, originality,
dynamic content, and quality of learning.

Caillou
Preschool offers activities focusing on the letters of
the alphabet, colors, shapes, and creativity. The
program's skill set is pretty much right on target for
preschoolers, unless players are not yet familiar with the
alphabet.

The
program includes 3 sections: Caillou's Alphabet, Caillou's Colors
& Shapes, and Caillou's Coloring & Creativity. The first
two sections are software programs that are available separately,
and the last section is a portion of a separate title. Kids have
to sign in to each program, although entering a name only happens
once (subsequent times, kids choose their name from a list). This fact makes the CD-ROM
feel slightly disjointed. Of
course, it would have been better if there were one sign in.

The
program can be played in either English, Spanish or French.
All three languages are included on the one CD-ROM. This is
a fabulous feature for families who encourage bilingualism
or multilingualism!

Many
of the activities feature similar games. For example, a maze game
appears multiple times in different ways. Kids might have to
"catch" butterflies labeled with the letter
"N" in order to clear a path from Caillou to Rosie. In
another activity, children follow drops of blue paint that lead
Caillou to his missing paintbrush. Both activities play similarly.

After
each activity, kids are asked whether they want to play again, yes
or no. This can become repetitive. Children earn a star after
completing each activity, and an activity is considered complete
when 3 stars are earned for the game.

The
Alphabet Section includes 26 activitiesone for each
letter of the alphabet. Many of the activities are
similar in style, but each is dynamically generated so that
kids are not playing exactly the same activity each time
they attempt one.

The
activity associated with the letter "A" is
entitled Apple Drop, and involves clicking on all the apples
labeled with either a lowercase or uppercase "A".
The letter "K" activity involves clicking and
dragging both lowercase and uppercase letter "K"
onto the tail of a kite.

The
Shapes & Colors section includes such games as finding
all objects that are circle-shaped on Caillou's shelf,
playing a memory game with blobs of colorful paint, and
clicking on similar objects in a set.

The
Coloring & Creativity section is a basic painting
program with coloring pages. Black and white coloring pages
can be printed. There's nothing new or unique in this
section.

Included
in the box is a high-quality package of Caillou Alphabet
flash cards, 55 of them in total. The "E" card,
for example, features a large uppercase letter "E"
alongside a colorful illustration of Rosie and her toy
elephant on one side, and an elephant on the other.

Our Bottom
Line The activities are fun and educational, but the design of
the program is less than ideal.